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Blog Article
Tracking reagents and labware in a spreadsheet works until the spreadsheet falls behind what’s actually on the shelf. The laboratory team at Halocarbon, a specialty fluorochemicals manufacturer, moved that tracking from Excel to Wasp Inventory and now saves about four hours a week, or 208 hours a year, according to Josue Alvarez.
Halocarbon has made specialty fluorochemicals for more than 70 years, including fluorinated lubricants, performance fluids, semiconductor fabrication chemicals, and lithium-ion battery chemicals. Its laboratory team tracked reagents and labware in Excel spreadsheets.
Lab stock is a poor fit for a spreadsheet. The people using reagents aren’t always the people maintaining the file, and every receipt and every use has to be typed in by hand. At Halocarbon, that manual upkeep was time-consuming and made it difficult to keep records accurate as materials were received and used. The wider case is covered in why Excel for inventory management doesn’t work.
A more reliable way to track reagent usage and labware, and less time spent keeping inventory records up to date. Accuracy and time were separate problems, and the replacement had to solve both.
Halocarbon’s Quality Manager introduced Wasp Inventory to improve inventory tracking across the company’s laboratories and warehouse. The team uses it primarily for reagents and labware.
Employees now record in Wasp Inventory when inventory is added or removed, so the team monitors available materials from the system rather than from a spreadsheet someone maintains by hand. Staff can look up inventory information directly, and records stay current as materials move in and out of stock.
Wasp Inventory saves Halocarbon’s laboratory team about four hours a week, or 208 hours a year, according to Josue Alvarez, Shift Lead Quality Control Analyst at Halocarbon.
The team also finds Wasp Inventory accessible and easy to use, and tracking is more reliable as reagents and labware are added to or removed from inventory. The time saving itself comes from visibility.
“Wasp Inventory makes it easier to look something up and quickly see what we’re missing or what needs to be added as a new item,” Alvarez said.
Halocarbon’s labs sit inside a chemical manufacturer, and the pattern applies to any lab that tracks consumables in a spreadsheet.
If your lab still tracks reagents and labware in a spreadsheet, see how Wasp Inventory handles lab stock, read the full Halocarbon case study, or book a free consultation to talk through your own setup.
Lab inventory management is tracking what a laboratory holds, such as reagents, consumables, and labware, so the team knows what’s on hand, what’s been used, and what needs to be replaced. Software replaces a manually updated spreadsheet with records that change as items are added or removed. Halocarbon’s laboratory team tracks its reagents and labware this way in Wasp Inventory.
Yes, Wasp Inventory includes lot and date code tracking in every version, so each reagent can be recorded with its lot number and expiration date. It can also send alerts as lots approach expiration and when stock falls below a minimum level, which helps a lab use, rotate, or remove reagents before they expire.
Halocarbon’s laboratory team saves about four hours a week, or 208 hours a year, after moving reagent and labware tracking from Excel spreadsheets to Wasp Inventory, according to Josue Alvarez, Shift Lead Quality Control Analyst. The saving comes from seeing quickly what’s available, missing, or due to be added. How much a lab saves depends on how much manual upkeep it does today.
Lab inventory tracks items that get used up, such as reagents and consumables, by quantity, while lab asset tracking follows durable equipment, such as instruments, one item at a time by who has it and where it is. Wasp Inventory handles the first and Wasp Asset the second. For the asset side of a lab, see how a testing lab cut asset management time by 75%.
